"All this region is very level and full of forests, vines and butternut trees. No Christian has ever visited this land and we had all the misery of the world trying to paddle the river upstream." Samuel de Champlain

In a sign that New York State may have to slow down a bit before authorizing a new kind of natural gas drilling, an advisory panel is delaying its recommendations on how the state should pay for new staff members to enforce regulations on the drilling operations.

The panel’s report had been due next Tuesday (November 1 2011). But members say that state agencies like the health and transportation departments are having a tough time coming up with budget figures by then that the panel will need to figure out what resources are needed to monitor the drilling operations, known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing or fracking..

The panel is now expected to work through February before producing its recommendations.

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation is in the midst of finishing an environmental assessment and rules to govern the controversial drilling process, which involves injecting water and chemicals into rock deep underground under high pressure to extract natural gas.

The proposed drilling has raised broad concern about potential environmental and health risks, including the possibility of groundwater contamination.

The department’s commissioner, Joe Martens, has long said that he expects drilling permits to be issued next year under the new regulations.

Now it is unclear whether the department will keep to that timetable. On Wednesday (October 26 2011), it said in a statement: “D.E.C. will not issue any permits until the state and local resource needs are met and programs are in place to ensure strong oversight of this activity. The timing is less important than ensuring the thoroughness of the panel’s review and recommendations.”

After meeting with the advisory panel on Tuesday, Mr. Martens said the timing was “hard to predict,” according to some panel members.

One member, Eric A. Goldstein, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the extension of the panel’s deadline “an encouraging sign that the fracking express may be slowing down to a more moderate speed.”

Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, said the industry respected the state’s need for thorough analysis and its “commitment to getting it right.”

He added, “We certainly hope this doesn’t delay the regulatory process, and we’re still optimistic that drilling will occur in 2012.”

Rob Moore, another panel member and the executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said the delay lessened pressure on the state agency to “rush to a conclusion” on its proposed fracking regulations.

I'm the second generation of my family that lives in Richelieu, Quebec, in Canada. My family tree, both from my mother's and my father's side, has its roots in Quebec since the beginning of the 1600s: my ancestors crossed the ocean from France, leaving Perche and Normandy behind them. Both French AND English are my mother tongues: I learned to talk in both languages when I was a baby, and both my parents were perfectly bilingual too.